Love Unexpected
by Something Different 01
Summary: Mason Foster loved the zoo, it was her home for as long as she can imagine, and when her cousin Kelly brings her back to the grounds after a summer of rebuilding and remodeling, she meets the Mee family. More importantly, she meets Dylan Mee, and everything starts to change. Dylan X OC
1. My name's Mason

**Hi everyone it's Maddy here! I hope you guys enjoy my first story on this account, if you haven't read my other stories on my second account then just search Artemis's Daughter 01 or click the link in my bio. If you read my bio then it'll explain why I have two accounts and why this story is on my top priority.**

**I hope you enjoy the first chapter of Love Unexpected!**

"Mason hurry up!" Kelly shouted from her car which she had parked at the curb of the school. I just huffed as I picked up my books that had dropped on the ground before running towards where she was parked and jumping in the back seat. "What took you so long, I told you that you had to come to the zoo with me today." She said and I just shrugged as I looked out the window. There was no way in hell that I was going to tell her why I had spent more time than normal in that horrid place called school.

You see, I had caught a glimpse of the new boy in my homeroom and I had instantly became curious as to who he was. I mean he was basically perfect in my book, he had messy brown hair that fell just over his eyes and he had the warmest brown eyes that I had seen in my entire life. He had that whole bad boy appearance to him but for some reason I knew that he wasn't really like that even though that's the vibe he radiated.

Kelly had told me about him, apparently her new boyfriend was his dad, and her new boyfriend was the owner of the zoo that she worked at. I knew that they had moved into the house at the zoo in the beginning of summer, but today was the first day of school and it was the first I had seen of the elusive Mee family that Kelly talked so much about.

"You're gonna love these guys." She told me as we pulled into the driveway of the zoo. I had come here all the time before the Mee's moved in, but after they had taken residance at the zoo Kelly had gotten busier and I found myself sitting at home for basically the entire summer. Wishing that my cousin had the time to just take me to the zoo with her. "Dylan's your age by the way." She said, even though it was information that I had received about twenty times before.

"Kelly you've told me this a million times." I muttered as I stepped out of the car and looked around at the familiar landscape of the zoo that I loved so much, "I missed this place so much." I muttered and Kelly smiled as she reached into a bag that was sitting on the passenger seat and pulled out a khaki colored shirt.

"Here, you've basically grown up here, I think you'll be fine showing a few people around the place." She said and a huge smile spread across my face as I gently took the shirt from her hands and looked at it. Right on the name tag was my name stitched into the patch, this was real, and it was a dream come true. "Come on, put it on quick and I'll introduce you to Benjamin and his kids." She said and I smiled as I shrugged the shirt on over my grey t-shirt and ran with her towards the actual zoo part of the property.

"Hey it's the mini Foster!" I heard Robin shout and I smirked as I saw him and his monkey Crystal standing with Peter MacCreedy and a man that I didn't recognize. I assumed that was Benjamin considering his shirt had his name on it, but beside him as a little girl with curly red hair and the cutest smile int he world. "We were wondering when you would be back." Robin said as I stopped beside him and I smiled as I looked around at the others.

"Hey it's not my fault Kelly wouldn't let me come this summer." I said, "I'm Mason Foster, Kelly's cousin." I said as I saw Benjamin looking pretty confused as to who I was and he smiled as I finally gave him the information as to who I was.

"Nice to meet you, this is Rosie." He said and I smiled as I gave the little girl a wave.

"You wanna go see the peacocks?" She asked excitedly and I laughed as I nodded and a huge smile spread across her adorable little face before she grabbed my hand and started running back towards the house where I saw a small pen set up. I thought I heard chirping coming from over there.

"I'll need you by the front gates in twenty minutes Mase!" Kelly shouted and I gave her a thumbs up behind my back before running after Rosie. She was really excited about these peacocks wasn't she?

"This is peaches." Rosie said while leaning down and scooping up a tiny bird before showing her to me and I smiled as I gently ran a finger down the little birds head. I was so happy that the animals finally had someone to make their lives better, when there wasn't an owner to the zoo we barely got by on what we had.

"You're doing a great job taking care of them." I said as she sat down on the grass and let the little birds scurry around her. She sent me a smile before going back to laughing at the little birds who were running around her legs.

"You should meet my brother, he looks like he's your age." She said without looking up at me and I smiled before nodding, "You would like him, he likes to draw to." she said and I raised an eyebrow at her as I wondered how she knew that I liked to draw, "It's all over your arms, I thought it was really pretty." She said and I smiled as I looked down at my inked skin.

Over the course of the day I had taken my sharpie that I had with me everywhere I went and started drawing this design that came to my mind. It was a design that looked like branches spreading from my wrist and up my forearm. I loved the look of it considering it was done in all black sharpie and had a tiny bird drawn in the branches.

Kellly didn't like that I drew on myself all the time, but I always took a quick picture of it if I liked it and then scrubbed it off so there was no evidence of ink design that was on my skin. This one I was planning on keeping for a few days though, I loved it and it was some of my best work.

"Well then Rosie, would you like to introduce me to your brother?" I asked and her eyes lit up as she nodded rapidly and hopped up on her feet, scaring the peacock chicks half to death, before stepping over the little wire fence and running off towards the zoo again. I couldn't help but laugh as I ran after her and towards the entrance to the zoo.

"Dylan!" She shouted and I felt my stomach erupt in butterflies as she stopped in front of her brother who had a smile on his face as he saw his little sister, "This is Kelly's cousin." She said excitedly and I smiled shyly as I stopped beside her and in front of Dylan who looked like he recognized me.

"You're in my grade aren't you?" He asked and I nodded with a smile on my face, but instead of seeming disgusted that I was here, I don't know why I thought he would do that, he smiled, "Cool, I'm Dylan." He said and I smiled as I shook his hand.

"I'm Mason."

**So there it is, I hope you guys like the first chapter and don't forget to REVIEW! and leave me your comments and your opinions because it helps me so much when you do tell me what you're thinking while reading these stories. **

**New chapter will hopefully be up soon, thanks for reading! **


	2. Dylan: My new best friend

**So here it is, the second chapter to Unexpected Love. I hope you guys like it! And don't forget to REVIEW! at the end.**

"So you really go to my school?" Dylan asked as we walked down the path of the zoo towards the Lion's enclosure. We had a good ten minutes before the people came so it wasn't like we were in a mad dash to get everything ready in time.

"Yep, you're in my homeroom." I said and he raised an eyebrow at me and I just shrugged, "I just remember you were in my homeroom, not many new kids come to our school." I said and he nodded before shoving his hands in my pocket, "You're little sister's adorable." I said, trying to change the subject to somethin a little less awkward then me confessing that I saw him in our homeroom.

"Yah, she seems to really like you too, usually she's pretty shy around new people." He said and I smiled, well that felt nice, a little girl wasn't afraid of me. I guess there's a first for everything right? "She kept on shouting look at your arm, what was that about?" He asked with a laugh and I smirked as I held up my ink covered arm.

"She saw this and said that you like to draw too." I said and we stopped walking as he stared at the black lines that were on my skin. His hands gently took my wrist and I felt electricity run through my skin and make me shiver as he ran a finger down the smooth lines. "It's not that good, I just got bored and decided to draw it." I said with a shrug and he scoffed before shaking his head.

"This is so cool, I can do small scenes and stuff, but I always mess things up if I draw them too big." He said and I smiled before noddiing in thanks.

"Well then maybe we can learn from each other, because the only surface I can draw on is my skin, and Kelly's not a big fan of that." I said with a laugh and he smiled beore nodding. "But be warned, by the time I'm done with you, you won't be able to see your skin fully for a few weeks." I said and he smiled.

"That's a risk I'll have to take." He said before nodding his head in a motion for me to follow him, "Usually the guests come through the front gates, but if you want to get a group of people to show around that isn't full of narcissitic egomaniacs, then you have to stand back a little." He said and I smiled as he stopped by one of the kite carts that was a little ways away from the entrance.

"What if I mess this up, I haven't been here in months." I said and he just shook his head as he looked over at the entrance where people were starting to pile in.

"If you know the grounds then you can do it, and if you're Kelly's cousin then you have to be a good guide." He said and I rolled my eyes as he gave me a quick smile before going off to talk to a group of people that looked a little lost.

I took a deep breath and plastered a smile onto my face before walking up to a group of little kids all dressed in the same blue t-shirts. I knew that meant they were probably a school group or a day care group or something, so that shouldn't be too bad for me. As my first tour at least.

"Hello, and welcome to the Rosemoor Animal Park!" I said excitedly and the little kids all seemed to light up as I stood in front of them, "Are we ready to have some fun today!" I asked excitedly and the kids all cheered as I smiled, "Awesome, now just follow me and I'll show you all the cool places where you can see the animals." I said and the teachers who were with the kids just smiled at me as I seemed so excited. Honestly, I was excited.

This was amazing! It's like I never left in the first place.

"How was your first day on the job?" Kelly asked as I came back from my last group. I had been the one to get stuck with showing a group of old women around the zoo and let's just say that they don't walk very fast. So I ended up walking with them back to the entrance and waiting for them all to leave.

"I never want to show a group of old ladies around again." I said with a huff as I sat down in the living room of the Mee house and finally got to relax my aching feet. I loved the zoo, but that was a lot of walkng that I was not up for.

"Don't worry, you can always come work with me at the cafe." Lilly said and I smiled before nodding. Lilly was my other cousin that worked here at the zoo, technically I wasn't related to her since Kelly was my cousin on my mom's side and Lilly was her cousin on her dad's side, but that was just confusing. "Hey Dylan." she suddenly aid and my eyes went wide as she sent a wink my way.

Lilly and I had a bit of a discussion about Dylan when I was in between tours. I told her that he went to my school and that I did think he was cute, and she told me that I was head over heels in love with him. Which I wasn't.

She told me that she had a crush on Dylan back when the zoo was being put back together and the Mee family moved in, but after that shocking piece of information that threatened to bring out the inner serial killer in me, she told me she was over it. Apparently him being fourteen almot fifth teen and in high school. And her being thirteen and homeschooled just didn't seem like a good combo.

"Hey Lilly, hey Mason." Dylan said while taking a seat beside me on the couch. I felt the familiar butterflies erupt in my stomach and I knew that it wasn't good that i was acting this way after knowig him for a day, "You look exhausted." He said while looking over at me and I let out a sigh as I nodded.

"My feet are going to fall off." I said and he laughed as he shook his head.

"Don't worry you'll get used to it." Dylan promised and I sighed as I propped my feet up on the coffee table, "You guys wanna watch a movie, Kelly and my dad won't get back from their rounds for a couple hours." He suggested and I looked over at Lllly with an eyebrow raised, obviously I couldn't go anywhere, but her room was here so it was really up to her.

"Nah I'm good, you two watch a movie though, I'll just be in my room." She said while sending me a wink, a wink that went unnoticed by Dylan as he just shrugged and grabbed the remote off the table and turned the TV on. But when he smiled and picked a movie I felt my entire body tense up, of course he picked a horror movie.

"You ok?" He asked with a little laugh and I just gave him a nervous smile as I sunk down in my seat and tried to hide my face.

"Oh don't worry Mase, you have Dylan here to protect you." Lilly said with a laugh before leaving the room. I was honestly terrified, I hated scary movies because they reminded me of all the murders and serial killings that actually happened in the world, and that meant that I knew it could happen to me too. All together it just added up to one giant fear of scary movies.

"Relax Mason, i've watched this before, it's not that bad." Dylan said with a laugh and I sent a small glare his way before wrapping a blanket around my shoulders and huddling into the corner of the couch where I could hopefully hide from anything that popped up on the sceen.

"Hello?" The girl in the movie asked. It was tweny minutes into the movie and I was already shaking I was so scared. Dylan, on the other hand, was basically laughing at me as I cowered in fear, he was like a fearless piece of brick. He didn't get scared.

But when the girl went to open the door to her basement I knew something was going to happen, and even though I was completely prepared for it I still was scared to death when she opened the door and the grotesque face of a bloody clown came popping out.

Before i had only let out little screams and yelps, but that was because I thought things were going to pop out, this was the first real thing to scare me, and I let out a real scream this time as I ducked down and hid my face in the blankets.

"Mase, you ok?" Dylan asked and I peaked out from under my blanket to see him looking at me in actual concern. So I just shook my head and he frowned as he saw how scared I really was, "Come on, I'm not stopping the movie but i'm not having you scream at everything." He said and i raised an eyebrow at him as he scooted over so he was sitting beside me. "I'm not gonna bite." He said with a laugh and I just gave him a soft smile as I let the blanket go and folded into his arms that instnatly wrapped around me.

I was surprised that he offered to hug me while the movie played, but I didn't have a chance to ask as I saw the demented bloody face of that clown pop up on the screen again. Before I could even scream Dylan's arms tightened around me and he gave me a small smile before pulling me closer to him so my head was on his shoulder.

"You ok?" He whispered after another hour and I just nodded sleepily as I struggled to keep my eyes open. He gave me a small smile as I tried to stay awake, "Come on, I think you need something to wake you up." He said and I jolted awake as he left his spot beside me and pulled me onto my feet.

"Wait one question, could this possibly get us arrested?" I asked and he laughed before shaking his head and I rolled my eyes as I followed him out of the house and towards the zoo.

"Dylan, Mason, be back soon!" I heard Benjamin shout and I knew that they had to be at the bar with the other staff members of the zoo. We had just walked past it and I could heard the laughter and the shouting coming from the open windows of the building.

"Got it dad!" Dylan shouted and I saw Kelly smiling like an idiot as she looked at us through one of the windows. I just rolled my eyes at her before following Dylan off towards the zoo where the sounds of the animals settling down for the night was heard everywere you went, "I found this place back when we were trying to find Buster in the summer." He said and I smiled.

We walked through the paths of the zoo and I looked around in awe as I saw all the stars above us, you couldn't see stars like that in the city, that was for sure.

He led me towards a cluster of trees at the very edge of the zoo and I instnatly got scared and nervous. He was leading me through the woods while it was dark, that's not necessarily a good thing to do after we just watched a movie where the main girl was attacked by a demented clown in a forest.

"Hey, it's ok." Dylan said as he saw me stop and I just shook my head as i took a step back and looked at the tall trees in front of me, "Hey come here." He said and I just looked at him nervously as he offered his hand towards me. I gave him a smile as I grabbed his hand and he smiled as he started to lead me through the trees, "I think you're gonna like this place." He said.

"Where are we going?" I asked and he put a finger to his lis as he came behind me and put his hands over my eyes. I didn't feel the pine needles crunching under my feet anymore so I knew that we had to be in some sort of clearing, but as he got me to walk forward I grew even more nervous.

"Ok now look around." He said as he took his hands away from my eyes.

I couldn't grasp any words as I looked around in awe. The clearing was all short soft grass that flowed gently with the soft breeze that was blowing through. The trees around us seemed to be blocking us off from the real world, but the most impressive sight was the crystal clear pond that was in front of us. There were tiny minnows swimming around in the water and the sunset that was almost gone made everything seem that much better.

"This place is amazing." I whispered and he smiled as he saw me lookinng around in shock, "I'm serious Dylan, this place is perfect." I said and he shrugged as he looked at the beautiful scenery around him.

"It's pretty cool." He said and I nodded in agreement, "I used to come out here just to get some alone time and do whatever I wanted, but now the zoo is open and school is starting so I'm probably not going to be able to come out here as often." He said with a frown and i gave him a reassuring smile as I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well I promise that I'll make sure this place stays Dylan Mee's secret hide out." I said and he smiled a genuine smile. It wasn't like he was laughing at me becuase I was scared, or he was just showing that cute smirk of his, this was a real smile. And I loved it on him.

"Thanks for coming." He said with a smile.

"Thanks for inviting me."

**So there it is, I hope you guys like it and don't forget to REVIEW! and leave your opinions because I love it when you do! Love you guys!**


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